Homelessness Action Week Connect Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14 at the Prince George Native Friendship centre, Power of Friendship Hall, 1600 Third Ave.

Health and Community Resources: lunch, photos, backpacks and haircut.

Homelessness Action Week Events

Homelessness Action Week runs October runs Oct. 12 to 18, but the problem of homelessness lasts all year.

Prince George has the following events planned in conjunction with this week:

On Friday, Oct. 10 there will be a Thanksgiving Lunch at the Fire Pit at 12 noon.

Sunday, Oct. 12 St. Vincent de Paul will have its Thanksgiving Dinner at Sacred Heart at 11:30 a.m. On Tuesday, Oct. 14 there is a Connect Day at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

On Thursday, Oct. 16 Room 2-122 College of New Caledonia starting at 6:30 p.m. Presentation: Spaces, Places and States of Mind – homelessness, housing and alternative communities.

This current version of a video series by Dr. Eric Weissman takes a long and wide look at how city spaces have been contested by homeless people fighting for the right to build camps in the U.S. and Canada. The film begins with Toronto’s infamous Tent City and follows the ex-residents of this modern shantytown as they transition through rent supplemented housing.

While examining the interplay of addiction, alcoholism and mental health in the transitional housing experiences of once homeless people, the focus then shifts to the first legally sanctioned shantytown in U.S. history, Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Weissman examines the relationship between different kinds of housing and the physical and mental well being of people who otherwise would be homeless and asks what room there is in current plans to end homelessness for unconventional alternatives to housing programs and other popular models.

The film will be of interest to anyone interested in sincere visual storytelling, homelessness and who see a critical understanding of how values about deserving and undeserving poverty permeate our views on proper use of space.

The film version being shown is 60 minutes long. A discussion with the filmmaker and with members of the communities shown in the film by video conference will follow.